How Much Should I Fly? This is what I was asking myself a year or so ago. Becoming a pilot is great and you are full of vigor but if you’re flying for fun and not for a career you have less motivation to keep the same pace. There’s also a concern of getting out of practice, the whole “are you current or are you proficient?” conversation. If you haven’t heard that before, basically being current means you’re legal to fly, being proficient means your skills are to a level which maintains safe and accurate flying skills and knowledge. Being proficient is obviously a lot more intense than keeping up with currency so for today I’m going to talk about how we maintain proficiency.
How Often Should I Fly?
This will be different for everyone but with some study and a flight simulator I find that flying once every other weekend is my sweet spot. This keeps a weekend open in between to spend with family, have non aviation related trips and generally have time to live a normal life while still getting up 2-3 times a month. Note that this does not include anytime you’re learning a new major skill. Yes we are always learning and honing our skills but if you’re learning to fly instrument or getting a new endorsement flying 1-2 times a week is a must in my opinion. On the off weeks a have about 2-3 more hours of using a flight sim at home and of course countless hours of reading or watching youtube about skill improvement or general aviation news. This helps me replay what I would do in these situations in my head anytime I watch them. Shoutout to Pilot Debrief with “Hoover”. I can’t give him enough credit for having great commentary on the videos he makes. SHORT: Once every other week.
How Long Should I Fly?
I like to keep my flights at about 2 hours with the occasional 3 hours CX flight. This give me about 60 hours a year for standard planned flying then about 10 more hours of flying them someone from the local airport calls and asks if I want to join them to go somewhere as a safety or second pilot. One thing I try to do every time I fly by myself, which is most of the time, is complete a section of the Pilot Test Standards booklet, basically all the stuff I was supposed to know when taking my check ride. Here’s the short list of things I try to do over a couple flights.
- Takeoffs – Short, Soft, Standard)
- Landings – Short, Soft, Standard, Emergency (engine out)
- Steep turns – remember to hold altitude (+-10) and keep the steep turn in and keep your speed up
- Nav to at least 3 points using the CDI and chart before checking four flight
- Simulated Engine out during flight with fire
- Power On Stall – takeoff simulation
- Power Off Stall – landing simulation
This is done without anyone else in the plane but sometimes I have a passenger which brings me to my next point about flying with friends. SHORT: 2-3 Hours per flight
Get To Know Local Pilots
You can do this by joining a flying club, handing around an airport after you fly at a dinner or just some picnic tables or literally walking up to pilots you see land to strike up a conversation. Generally all pilots like talking about flying so this should be easy. You can also join the Civil Air Patrol or young eagles if you want to meet other pilots and you want to volunteer at the same time.
What’s right for me might not be perfect for you but make sure you aren’t just logging the 3 takeoffs and landings needed to take passengers every 90 days. No skill is maintained by flying once every 90 days and 12 hours a year is a joke so keep up the tempo and train on the standard test maneuvers from time to time.
